~ One of many spectacles ~

"So... That's the Queen, not as intimidating as the rumors say" A newly-appointed soldier whispers to himself while looking at the small woman with short crimson hair who's resting on her makeshift throne before the upcoming battle.

"Yes, that is indeed her" A gruff voice calls out behind the young man, startling him, it seems that somebody heard him. The young soldier while flustered turned around to face the man that spoke to him.

"And don't let her size or appearance fool you, she's probably even worse than the rumors surrounding her" An older with quite a roughly shaven beard walks near and stands beside the young one.

"I d-didn't mean a-anything by it, it's jus-" The flustered soldier tries to explain himself.

The older one chuckles slightly, seeing himself in the young lad, so innocent and inexperienced "Relax, as long as the Queen doesn't hear you, nothing bad will happen to you"

"Huh? S-s-so, what would h-happen if she did hear it?" The young man asks a tad bit scared"

"Well..." The face of the older soldier comes real close to the face of the younger soldier "Something very, very bad"

The youngun gulps and slightly shivering dares to ask "what is 'very bad'?"

There's a moment of silence as the young man's heartbeat quickens and just as he's about to change his mind about knowing the answer to his question, he hears the older man say something that makes his face go pale.

"You'd die" With that, the older man backs off a little, to let the young man have space. But moments later the older man breaks out in a hearty laugh.

"Man, unfortunately having a mirror here is a luxury we soldiers simply don't have, otherwise you'd have a chance to look at your face... Because it is priceless" The older man finally says after having stopped himself from laughing any further.

"W=what? So was it all just a joke?" The youngun asks hopefully.

"It was... Most of it"

"Most of it?"

"Mhm, the Queen would do something if she knew that her subjects didn't know what she looks like, I just don't know what, not very often does something like that happen around here, tell me lad, where you from?"

"Uh... Tipaniku" The young soldier answers with concern still obvious in his voice.

"That's uh... A small village up North, right?"

"Down South, actually" The youngun corrects.

"Ah... I've been here for a while, so I am not that knowledgable about most places anymore, a lot of time has passed since I've seen any sort of map and I am not high rank enough to look at the ones that are here"

"It's a farming village, barely a hundred people living in it, so it's small just as you thought, the only thing we know of the Queen is the 'rumors' that some of the traveling merchants bring us while they buy our harvest"

"Hmm... Well, that explains why you've never seen the Queen, but how is it that you found yourself here in the first place? In the Queen's frontline army now less, pretty sure that the Queen doesn't go recruiting in such villages, not to mention farming ones, since all the manpower is required there for work"

"Well... A few years ago, my older brother who went to live in one of the bigger cities, because he married into a family that lived there, was recruited to the Queen's army"

"And you haven't heard of him since then and want to 'find him', is that it?" The older man interrupts him with a question having lost his cheerful smile and is now looking back at the young lad seriously.

"Yes, how'd you know?" The lad asks back with a surprised smile, not picking up on the older soldier's mood change.

The old soldier sighs tiredly "So even the small villages now are getting complaints about soldiers never coming home..." The man whispers to himself.

"What?" The youngun asks, not hearing what the old man said.

"Nothing, look, kid, coming here wasn't worth it"

"What? Why?"

"Your brother? Most likely dead, pure and simple, I am sorry to say that, but that's just how it is"

"B-but that can't be, he was very strong, amazing even, especially with weaponry and battle tactics, he wanted to be a soldier when he grew up, so he trained non-stop, I don't believe that he's dead even for a moment" The young lad says emotionally but with strong conviction.

The older soldier seeing that the lad before him truly believes what he says, doesn't say anything else, because even if his brother was still alive, neither he nor his brother would be able to come back to their lives anymore, whoever gets selected as a soldier for the Queen's army, has only two options left for them. Die in battle or survive as long as you can until you die in battle for you're not allowed to leave once you join. He would know, after all, he is the oldest surviving soldier in the army.

"Well, I wish that you're right" The older man says with a melancholic smile.

"I know that I am right"

"What's your name, young lad? Since Tipaniku ends with a 'u', that means your name also ends the same way"

"That's right, oh and it's Ipatu, may I ask what's yours?"

"Varkon"

"Wait... 'on'? Y-y-you're from the Royal City of Crimson?"

"Indeed I am"

"That's amazing"

"Is it?"

"Of course it is, you were born in the same place as the Royal Familly and the Queen herself, how is that not amazing, you must have seen the previous Queen and King and all the princesses" Ipatu says enthusiastically.

"I guess that is amazing" Varkon tries to match the youngun's enthusiasm, even if he doesn't see it as all that amazing, he'd rather have been born in a village as the young soldier than where he was.

"By the way, Varkon Sir"

"No, no, don't call me that"

"But how can I not? Now that I know where you're from, it's like I have to"

"What? So me clearly being older and a seasoned warrior didn't amount enough respect for that?"

"Uh... S-sorry, the sudden conversation thrust on me made me completely forget about it. Sir" The youngun says sweating.

"It was a joke. Seriously, don't, it was better when you didn't do that"

"... But"

"No buts, just Varkon is enough, anyway, what is it?"

"You mentioned something about being here for a while... How long is that exactly?"

"Hmm... Almost nine years, I think, it's hard to know when mostly everything is the same"

"N-nine years?!" Ipatu says a little bit too loudly, attracting some looks from around the pair.

"Quiet down" Varkon shushes the boy.

"Sorry" Ipatu quickly apologizes seeing his mistake "But don't most soldiers die before they even reach four years?" He still asks.

Varkon blinks in confusion for a moment, while thinking to himself 'So he knows that soldiers die fast, but doesn't know that they can't leave, wait, does he? Then why would he come here? Even if his brother is alive, it doesn't mean that he will live long, so he's just wasting his time anyways, what a suicidal idiot... Ha, but I can respect that'.

"Umm... Varkon?" Ipatu calls out to the older soldier, snapping him out of his mind.

"You are correct, most soldiers die before they reach even four years in soldierhood"

"Then doesn't that mean that you're one amazing soldier? You must be one of the commanders or at least well known"

Varkon can't help himself but laugh out loud again at the audacious thing that the youngun just said.

"Hey, why are you laughing again?" Ipatu says flustered again, thinking that he said something wrong.

"Nothing, it's nothing" That's all that Varkon says, not even one shred of the intent of telling about himself, especially about him being the same rank as he is as a new soldier. The biggest reason of course is that the fool's going to die eventually, so there's no need to attach himself too much, that's the biggest lesson that Varkon has learned, attaching yourself to people is a fool's idea, for it only makes it worse than they are gone. His mind sometimes still wonders about his family which he hasn't seen in years. How are they? Is everything okay? Has he himself been forgotten?

"Seriously, why were you laughing?"

"Don't worry about it, it was nothing"

"Fine, don't tell me... Can you tell me about the Queen?"

"Oh? What do you want to know?"

"Anything and all of it"

"Now hold up, all of it? Even I don't know that"

"Then everything that you know"

"That could take like... Hours, or days even, neither do we have that much time for talking, nor do I want to do such a thing, you gotta give me something specific"

"Hmm... Oh, I know, I heard that she's never lost a single war, battle, skirmish, or a defense, is that true?"

"Almost, you see, there was once, that she didn't exactly win... I wouldn't call it a 'loss' per se, but it wasn't an official victory"

"Oooh, tell me, tell me"

"You're like a child"

"Hey! I am a grown-up"

"Oh yeah? And what age are you then? Sixteen?" Varkon asks the youngest age when one becomes an adult.

"Seventeen"

"Well that's basically a kid, especially in my eyes"

"Yeah, yeah, come on, tell me already"

Varkon rolls his eyes at this young 'adult' and relents himself to speaking about the Queen.

"Well it was a long time ago, a few weeks before I joined the 'then' newly formed Princess's Army which is now the Queen's army, it was the very first real war, well one of the battles which the Queen was apart of as a leader, her father who was still alive at the time, was training her how to be a leader, now normally parents would teach their children in less... hectic ways, but not the King, he threw the young Princess at the time straight into battle with barely any information, just with a goal. To win with as few casualties as possible. So the Princess had to gather information, scout, strategize and do everything on her own, being taught about the battle in a real situation as that, was pretty difficult even for the prodigy which the Princess was, so even if she 'officially' won that battle after a long and grueling process. Her father, the King didn't see it the same way and counted it as a loss, because the Queen lost almost the same amount of soldiers as the enemy did. Eighty-three of ours to their ninety-five. So the King ordered a retreat of his troops and later won the war by himself without the Princess joining"

"That's harsh, she must've felt quite disappointed, because in my eyes that's a big victory, losing less than the enemy especially on the first time"

"Perhaps in most people's eyes that would be a good thing, but not to the eyes of the late King. Besides, nobody can say that it was a bad thing for the Queen to be thrown into battle like that as she got better quickly, adapted over the many battles, and now years later, our soldier loss is less than fifteen a battle when the enemy loses more than a hundred"

"Wow... She's amazing"

"She is..."

"So" Ipatu gets closer to Varkon, who wants to start backing away, but stops himself from doing so, but isn't fast enough as he hears the youngster whisper to him "You mentioned her Father" And he goes silent.

With a raised eyebrow in slight confusion, Varkon says "What about the late King?"

"Is... Is it true?" Ipatu whispers even closer to Varkon's face, the youngun's nose almost touching the cheek of the older man, making Varkon slightly uncomfortable.

"What? That the Queen killed her own Father?" Varkon asks the boy unfazed and in his normal tone after he realized what he was trying to imply.

Ipatu backs off, blinks several times in confusion "Why did you say it so loud?" He questioned the older soldier while looking around if anybody heard and are now looking at them, but he doesn't find anybody throwing gazes their way.

"I've got a better question, why did you get near me to whisper?"

"I thought that it would be a poor subject to question about, so I tried to be... uh... Sneaky"

"HA!" Varkon snorts quite loudly, startling the poor youngun "As if you need to do that, listen, dear child" Ipatu cringes slightly about the way he was addressed but doesn't interrupt as he wants to listen to what he's going to be told "The Queen loves hearing about herself, so you can speak about her life and everything surrounding her as much as you want the more we do that, the more it proves to her that she's far more important than us, as we are using what little free time we have to speak about her instead of doing our own things. As long you don't badmouth her in front of her or her hearing peripherals, you should be fine"

"S-seriously?" Ipatu asks with a stutter.

"Definitely, I guess you were too young to remember, or maybe it didn't reach Tipaniku somehow, but that's doubtful. When the Queen killed the King, she didn't give him a proper burial at all, not that of a King, a member of the Royal Crimson Family, or even that of the lowest rank soldier whose bodies get delivered back to their families for burial, she just burned his body in front of her subjects for fun festival festivity. It was quite a huge deal since no king of our kingdom has ever had such a fate before, not even the most terrible one"

"W-wait... Then is that how the Moonblaze festival began?" The youngun asks incredulously.

"You would be correct"

"So these past few years... I and my parents were burning a wooden doll under the shining moon on the behalf of the late King's death..."

"Indeed you have, it's quite strange that the Queen somehow managed to turn one of the most shocking events into a festival which people have joy celebrating. I am surprised that you didn't know that, I thought everybody would know"

"My parents never really told me why we burn a doll in the middle of the night, every time I asked they dodged the question, it helped us bond quite well, especially since my brother went away for his marriage, it left our home quite desolate... But I suppose I now know why"

"They didn't want you to think less of it since you're technically burning memory of somebody's father, which perhaps would've made you stop doing it ever again. Quite smart on them, but also stupid, since you heard it from a random soldier on a random battlefield. Sorry, kid. You need a minute?"

"Y-yeah..." Ipatu looks up at the sky with a thoughtful look.

While the youngun does that, Varkon himself is thinking of something and that is, how did the kid not ask anybody else in his Village, the place is small after all, did all of the elders just meet up together to discuss not exposing the backstory of the festival to the youngsters or something? He will have to ask about it when he gets the chance.

"Varkon" The older soldier snaps out of his thoughts hearing his name being called.

He sees that Ipatu is the one to do so, well that took less time than he thought was needed "Yes?"

"So, about the Queen"

"What is it?" The older man hides his surprise, he didn't expect Ipatu to just jump over the topic and go back to the Queen.

"Is it true that none of the Queen's wives" Varkon's eyes quickly go as wide as his old face allows it to "Has earned her love, oh an-" Ipatu doesn't get to finish asking the second part of his question as his mouth gets blocked by Varkon's palms.

"Quiet down" Varkon says urgently, looking around quickly, seeing that most who were around them are now looking straight at them. Ipatu sees Varkon's head roll around the place in panic like a wheel does the same and looks around spotting the same sight of multiple eyes on him.

His mouth finally stops moving, with the most confusion he has ever felt.

Varkon seeing the youngun stop trying to speak moves his hands away, he also sees questioning eyes from the young soldier.

This time it's Varkon who gets close, really close to Ipatu, him and his mind together foregoing the aspect of comfortableness altogether, he whispers in Ipatu's ears "We can't talk about that"

"Ab-" Ipatu tries to whisper back a question.

"The Queen's wives, that's the only subject nobody should ever talk about, everything else is fine, but that"

"Wh-" The youngun's whisper gets interrupted again.

"We just don't and that's it" And with that Varkon backs off, throwing a few glances around again, seeing fewer people looking at them, he can't help but sigh out tiredly.

"You said that everything is up to talking when it comes to the Queen, why is this different?"

"It just is" The older soldier dodges the question, as he doesn't want to even begin explaining.

Ipatu gets close to Varkon again to whisper "Okay, but can you at least tell me that answer? I want to know"

"What are you? crazy? What part of not talking about it, do you not understand?" Varkon whisper shouts at the young lad.

"Please?"

"No"

"Please, Varkon Sir"

"I said no"

"Varkon Sir, please, that's the last thing I will ask about the Queen"

There's a silence between the two, now only a few pairs of eyes on them, everybody else has gotten back to what they were doing.

"I swear, I will throw you under fire almost immediately if I get into trouble for this"

"Uh... S-sure"

"Yes, the Queen doesn't love any of her wives, never has and never will, happy?" Varkon finishes the 'happy' part with some spite and backs off a few meters away from the lad.

"Happy" Ipatu says with a smile, not minding the older soldier's actions of backing away.

Varkon sighs tiredly again, finally the kid's going to shut up and not talk about the Queen, when he thinks that, he sighs yet again, but this time out of relaxation. But all of that comes crashing down as he hears a very familiar voice, a voice he has heard for years, a voice that barely changed in those same years.

He wants to impale his foot on his sword, how did he forget to look at the Queen's throne amidst his panic when the stupid child mentioned the Wives. How weak was he to give in and talk about it even a little.

"The Old man's correct" Says a smooth, clear, and feminine voice, that is not loud to the point of it being classified as shouting nor quiet enough, that nobody would be able to pick up. It's just absolutely perfect enough for all to hear, trained over the years for the usage of battle and warcries, it helps in any situation.

Varkon gulps and slowly turns around with an already prepared head bow with his eyes set on the Queen's shoes, to show his respect and in knowing that he's lesser than her, hoping that it will help him. Ipatu also does the same, well to be more precise his body does it for him, somehow knowing that the situation isn't the best.

Everybody from a young age gets taught all the three different bows to the Royal Family, no matter if they will meet any of the members in their life or not, if an individual doesn't know even one of them, that's one of the biggest offenses to the Crimson family and it would get them into a cold and lone cell for a long while.

"That's enough for now, you may raise your head, old man" States the Queen, Luna Crimson.

Ipatu's head jerks a bit, but quickly stops when he realizes that only Varkon got the permission to raise his.

As Varkon raises his eyes, he sees the whole figure of the Queen, as he goes higher and higher, he sees one of the two main purest proofs for the heritage of the Crimson family, the blood-like flowing hair, which hasn't been woven together yet for the battle.

And finally, Varkon's eyes meet with the second heritage proof, the cold, red eyes, which are staring straight at him, making him almost buckle his knees under the sheer pressure from them. But his years of battle experience prevent him from actually doing so.

He also sees the two personally trained maids behind the Queen, the maids that creep him out, the maids that are so puppet-like that he can't actually see them for what they are, human just like him.

"Hmm" The Queen playfully puts her right hand's index finger on her lips as she hums while looking between the older soldier and one of the new ones. Of course, everybody around here knows that her playfulness is akin to deadliness instead.

After a while, the Queen slowly looks around her warriors, seeing them all surrounding the little event.

"You, behind the Old man, finish asking your question before you got interrupted by having your mouth shut with hands, word for word" The Queen finally says breaking the tense silence.

"U-uh, i-it w-w-was, um-m..." Ipatu stutters out of pure fright, he can't understand why, but he feels so scared, probably the most scared he has been in his short life.

"Stop stuttering and speak, soldier" The Queen throws out a simple command.

Ipatu gulps down a knot that has formed in his throat "I-is i-it t-t-true tha-" But even after the command, he can't help his own body to stop 'stuttering'.

The Queen pinches her nose bridge between the eyes while muttering to herself, which only her two maids pick up on "Rookies"

"Raise your head, maybe that will help you because I am not here for a show of stuttering" The Queen says after lowering her hands down from her face.

Ipatu's head raises to the command and as his eyes meet that of the Queen's, somehow his body relaxes, he himself doesn't understand why, but he almost feels normal, almost too normal which is starting to freak him out.

"Is it t-true" One stutter still slips through from the fact that everybody is looking at him except for Varkon who's not even going to dare and turn his back on the Queen "None of the Queen's wives has earnt her love and if she actually hates one of them?" Ipatu finishes the rest as decently as he could.

Ipatu can see some of the soldiers standing a few meters behind the Queen, their eyes are what catches his attention, as they widen at his question. He's pretty sure if it was any other place he'd hear hundreds of whispers go around the place from what he just said out loud, but these are soldiers of none other than the Queen, they are trained, so even if they want to say something to their colleagues, they don't dare to.

"So that's what that was... Hmm..." The Queen puts her chin on her palm in a thinking manner, she again raises her head to look around her soldiers, finally getting an excellent idea.

"So all of you really like to talk about me, it happened so much that it seems the only theme that hasn't been talked around all of you, is that of my wife situation" The Queen says a little bit louder than when she arrived, making all around to look straight at her.

"Well then, if you're so very curious... Why don't we make a spectacle of it, right?" The Queen finishes with a smirk and as she looks around she can see everybody, even the more hardened soldiers go stiff.

Ipatu is the only one that's not stiff right now, he also saw and even felt the small and fast shiver that went through Varkon's body as he heard those words.

"Now then, Varkon" The Queen says.

"H-huh? The Queen knows my name?" The older soldier can't help himself from asking a question out of sheer surprise, the surprise so big that it overshadows that of the pressure he has felt for the last several minutes.

Ipatu quickly throws a confused gaze at the back of Varkon's head with 'Why wouldn't she know your name' running through his naive head, as he still thinks that he should be high up in the ranks.

"Well of course I do, you're the soldier who has survived the longest, you practically have been here as long as I have and I am the army's leader and creator, but it's not the time for that now" the Queen sets her left hand on her rapier's hilt as she looks seriously at Varkon.

"But, seeing as you have been here the longest and seemingly know a lot about me and my royal life, how about this. Answer the stuttering mess's question, well the second part of it, since you've already done the first" And with that, the Queen pauses as she looks straight at the eyes of the older soldier.

A few dozen seconds pass in silence, the Queen silently sighing "You won't ask me 'Is that it?' after all, but I suppose it wouldn't happen with you in particular, since you've seen most, if not all of what I've done with others" The Queen raises her right hand in the air and swirls her pinkie around in two circles.

With that command thrown, the two maids that were standing so still, that even their chests wouldn't visibly rise for when humans would when they breathe, finally move, they turn around and very quickly make their way back to the Queen's throne, with the soldiers had already moved out of the way as they also recognized the silent command and in less than a minute the two maids bring it to the place where the Queen is right now. Of course, the maids make carrying the throne look easy, but Varkon's pretty certain that some soldiers would struggle with the task.

The maids set it down and stand on each side of the throne, one on the left and the other on right.

Luna gracefully sits down on her throne and again sets her left palm on the hilt of her rapier.

"Now, as everything is finally ready. Answer his question right and you'll be questioned by me, answer wrong, either of the questions, that being his and mine and something may happen. Who knows what... Oh wait, I do, but that's for later. Go ahead" The Queen finishes and relaxes in her throne, while slowly swirling her thumb on the hilt of her rapier.

Varkon gulps nervously, he's sure that he knows the answer to Ipatu's part, but he can't even imagine what would the question be from the Queen herself.

If he knew that both punishments were different for each question, maybe he could strategically retreat by purposefully answering wrong on Ipatu's question and being let off easier, but he knows that's not the case because if it was, the Queen would've mentioned it, she's very apparent with her reasons in her 'spectacles' as she calls it, even though he heard her refer to it as games instead, but one of the puppet and silent maids, to his surprise, actually advised her to not call it that in front of her army and for a good reason. He knows that she doesn't care for ninety-five percent of her soldiers, but if they also thought that they were worth just a 'game' to her, it could have some unpleasant results.

So he can't risk it, he needs to answer right, because at least that way he might have a chance of succeeding.

After deliberating for a full minute, which seemed way longer to the youngun behind him, Varkon finally opens his mouth to answer "No, the Queen doesn't hate any of her wives, that's just a rumor and nothing else"

Every soldier that was a spectator, craned their heads to the Queen's direction as they heard the answer to see what will happen.

The Queen stops swirling her thumb on the hilt as she hears the answer and instead starts tapping her index finger on it, this goes on for a few seconds, but they were long and agonizing.

But as the Queen stops with her finger tapping, she says "You are correct, I indeed don't hate any of them"

Ipatu releases a relieved sigh, but Varkon doesn't, he knows that the easy part was over, now is the main event.

"Well, you were correct on that, now then, time for my question, are you ready?"

Varkon of course has to answer, as it is the Queen that asked him, otherwise he'd stay silent, but somehow instead of being serious and answering 'I'm ready', he, for some reason honestly says "No, I don't think I am, my Queen, but at times a battle may be sprung upon you out of nowhere"

He can't comprehend why he said his honest thoughts and even threw a joking jab at the Queen out of all people, but perhaps it's the situation, after all, he has never been tested in one of the Queen's games, her spectacles, not once in all of his nine years. He has seen some soldiers lose a lot and others gain a lot, but he was lucky enough to not have the fake honor of being a target for the Queen's non-battle boredom.

Yes, that must be it, he feels that if he will pay for his stupidity of answering the young lad, he might as well have some fun. In this crazy death game of his one and only Queen.

The Queen grins at the older soldier with visible surprise in her gaze, but that surprise disappears as quickly as it appeared "Well said, soldier. Now Varkon, the questions are as follows. Previously you've answered that I don't love any of my multiple wives and that is correct. But, why is that exactly? What is the reason behind me not loving any of them ever?" And with a last smile, the Queen's face goes back to serious and relaxed as she waits for the answer from her victim.

The soldiers around them start looking at each other after hearing the Queen's question and the only expression is that of preemptive mourning for their fellow soldier because there's no way that he or anybody else but the Queen and perhaps her Wives know why that is, as the information about it is absolutely unknown. And you can't rely on such a fleeting thing as rumors for a question asked by the Queen. So in short, the man's doomed.

Varkon himself is starting to fall into a spiral of multiple ridiculous thoughts, he hasn't heard as many rumors as the rest of the newer soldiers since he's been stuck in the army for a while and barely anybody here dares to talk about the subject, so he can't even go off of that.

Visible sweat starts to pour out and go down the man's face as he mulls over the possibilities.

'Maybe the Queen is immune to lust and therefore doesn't like nightly bed activities, so without physicality in their lives, it just wasn't bound to be? But no, there still should be one or two that wouldn't mind that about the Queen and wouldn't give up on their love for her. Maybe the Queen was really mean to them so they didn't even get the chance to fall in love... Wait I'm going all wrong about this, the Queen asked why she doesn't love any of them, that doesn't mean that her Wives don't feel that way about her'

Varkon gulped down yet another knot that had formed in his throat, this time due to the realization that he has quite some time on the wrong thoughts, he threw a glance towards the Queen to see that her eyes are closed while sitting in a relaxed manner.

'So I'm not even worth being looked at while I think about the answer huh? Ha, of course not, she's the Queen and I'm a nobody... No, now's not the time to pity yourself, focus! Okay, let's see, now that I have a better place to start thinking about, this should be at least a little bit easier. Ok, ok, ok... Maybe the Queen doesn't have time and energy to waste for love since she's basically in love with War, could that be it? I mean she hasn't been back home for two years now, because she's busy battling and the last time itself was when one of her wives had a problem and sent a request for her. Maybe her Wives are ugly to her? But that's not possible, all of her wives are more beautiful than his own, even if he hates to admit that and he first fell in love with his wife because she was beautiful, well, except for maybe one of them, the one that uses too much makeup, no wait, why am I even thinking of this, the Queen's not so shallow... Or is she?'

With that thought, Varkon again glances at the Queen, but this time he sees that she resumed tapping her rapier's hilt, at least her eyes are still closed.

'This is bad, I'm making her wait and waste time, she hates wasting time, not good, ok, ok, it might be something simple, maybe she doesn't like them because none of them are to her taste? Maybe she'd like a farmhand or a criminal or even a... uh... oh, I don't know, why am I even thinking of choices, using up precious time. it could be anything, to something big like the Queen having no heart, which he wouldn't past her, or something little, like the Queen not liking any of the girls' names, which would be one of the saddest things I would've heard if that were true'

As Varkon's mind works on his thoughts which are all over the place, he gets distracted for a moment as from the corner of his eyes he sees the Queen looking at him with fully opened eyes, it seems that he's been silent for too long, which makes him even more nervous.

'I have to say something, otherwise, the Queen might not even have to do anything as I myself will die from a headache'

And so Varkon finally opens his mouth and slowly starts saying "It's because... Uh..." But he gets stuck as he hasn't chosen anything concrete from any of his previous thoughts.

The Queen raises one of her eyes at him, in wait for him to continue.

"It's because... because the Queen has..." His mouth stops moving, and his brain goes into overdrive as he remembers that Ipatu's right behind him.

'All of this is happening because of that child, why did I have to answer him? why did I even talk to him? All of this is his fault, none of it would've happened otherwise, screw him... No, what am I saying, I was still the one that answered... And I didn't even get to ask him about why he didn't ask anybody else from his village about the festival and the King's doll burning' Varkon blinks a few times 'Wait! The festival'

Varkon breathes out and tries to calm down so he could think about this straight and he also refers to the Queen "My Queen, could you give me one more minute to think things through? I think my lesser mind is on to something"

"Hmm... Okay, but only a full minute" She looks to her right, at the right-hand maid, who nods.

"Thank you for granting a lesser man's request, my Queen"

"Yes, yes, now start thinking, don't waste any more time" The Queen says while rolling her eyes.

'the festival, her father, the late king, the only time when I saw all of her wives and even her mother, the previous Queen, the time she burned his corpse, it's not a coincidence, something only known to the Queen must have happened. But I do remember that years ago, she was the angriest I've ever seen her be and it had to do with her father sending her a letter with some orders in it, there was also a messenger there so that she wouldn't have a choice but return, now I don't know what happened or what that order was, but she was livid, she even killed a few soldiers of her army while leaving the battlefield to her second-in-command, the next time I saw her it was when the entire Royal City was looking at a burning corpse of a king'

The Queen sees her maid put her hand on the throne's right side, meaning that a minute has passed.

"Okay old man, your minute has passed, now give me an answer" She says while keeping her palm near her rapier's hilt.

Varkon breathes in and out once, calming down as he prepares for whatever's about to come his way. And he finally answers.

"The Queen doesn't love any of her wives... I might be completely off the mark, but I think it may be because of the Queen's father, the late King, in who's a dead presence we set ablaze a wooden doll as we celebrate the Moonblaze festival" Varkon says the first part of his thinking, he sees the Queen's eyes sharply squint at him, making him feel even more pressure than before, with one last gulp, he continues.

"And I think that it's because all of the Queen's wives were chosen by the late king and thrust upon the Queen, therefore because it wasn't on the Queen's accord, on her own volition, she and her heart were unable to even think of falling in love with any of them. That is my answer, my Queen"

And now there's only silence as Varkon, Ipatu the young lad behind him and all of the surrounding soldiers wait for the Queen to do something.

The Queen's palm that was near the hilt, completely takes it over and the rapier slides out of its sheath, the magnificent blade that has felt the flesh from thousands of various kinds of people, has seen mostly one color in its' Smithen life and that's red.

The Queen takes the sharp blade by one hand and examines her rapier in front of everybody's eyes, the silence is so thin, so tense, that even the quietest of breathing noises can be heard.

The Queen takes her hand off of the sharp blade and instead straightens it out to the side, right in front of one of her maids. The maid takes out a handkerchief from her handy pocket, which the Queen takes and she starts cleaning the rapier as she finally stands from her throne.

As she continues cleaning, she finally makes eye contact with the older soldier and she starts moving towards him, he can't help himself from starting to visibly shake, as his mind goes to the worst-case scenarios.

The Queen slowly makes her way to the soldier and when she's close enough, she quickly and with one sharp movement, thrusts the rapier towards Varkon's face, who has barely enough time to blink.

Ipatu loudly gasps in shock and fear, thinking that the old man just lost his life because of his naivety.

Everybody around just awaits for the man's body to fall to the ground limply.

But it doesn't happen, nothing happens, so everybody looks closer and even Ipatu comes from behind Varkon and instead is now standing beside him, so he could see what went on.

The Queen's rapier and its sharp edge are really close to the soldier's left eye, if Varkon flinched and moved even a little because of that, especially to the front, he could've lost his eye.

The Queen pulls the blade away from the man and instead raises it to be at her eye level and after a moment she smiles.

"Good, it's clean, just as it should be before the battle. Oh and great job, Varkon, you are correct, that is indeed the truth" She finishes with a glance at the still wide eyes and the frozen face of Varkon.

But as the soldier hears those words, his face unfreezes and he finally lets out the breath he didn't realize he was holding, and with all of the stress, pressure, and nervousness dying in an instant, he falls to the ground, landing right on his rear.

Most of the soldiers around nod their heads in approval at the man's success, some roll their eyes at him because he fell to the ground right in front of their Queen and a select few look at him with a stink eye, envying that he had the opportunity of such honor.

As Varkon's breathing gets back to normal, the Queen calls out to him.

"By the way, you changed your mind about your answer midway through saying it and asked for a minute of extra time, what was it?"

"I... It was quite a stupid thing, but I was about to say that the wives of the Queen weren't up to the exquisite tastes of the Queen"

"Ha, well that's also right, but it wouldn't be a correct answer for the question" The Queen comments jovially, she also gets a faraway look for a moment as she reminisces about somebody from her past before she gets serious, as she says loudly to all of the soldiers.

"Now then, are all of you happy that you've learned more about the great young me?"

All of the soldiers in unison, Varkon, still on the ground included... And Ipatu excluded, because he's lost, yell out "Yes, my Queen"

"Good, because..." The Queen pauses for a bit, she puts her rapier back inside its sheath and looks towards her maids as she points her fourth left-hand finger to her right hand's open wrist.

The maids come close and whisper in her ears "Twenty-two minutes"

And after that, the Queen continues "Because we are attacking our enemy eleven minutes earlier, so prepare yourselves" With that, the Queen, goes to sit back down on her throne, she swirls her pinkie again and the maids after bowing, lift it and carry it to the spot where she will begin the battle, while she's on it.

Most of the soldiers had already readied themselves, just follow behind their Queen, while several others go run around for their equipment, that includes Varkon who was stuck talking with Ipatu and the young lad himself, as he follows after Varkon while asking for help for preparation, if it was anything else at the moment, Varkon would want to stay away from the yongun right now, but a battle's a battle and all differences are to be set aside when it comes to that, so he helps him.

~ End of Special Chapter, part 1 ~